CCARDESA to host Sub-Regional Focal Point on Animal Genetic Resources

1st – 3rd April 2014. Botswana. The Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) and the African Union – Inter African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) organized from  a workshop, focusing on strengthening institutional capacity for the management of animal genetic resources in Southern Africa. 

The workshop aimed at launching the process of establishing a Sub-Regional Focal Point for Animal Genetic Resources in Southern Africa as part of the implementation of the Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources. 

It was decided that CCARDESA Secretariat will host the Sub-Regional Focal Point by offering office space and the necessary support.

Related:
FIRST CCARDESA GENERAL ASSEMBLY
6- 7 May, 2014, Boipuso Hall, Gaborone, Botswana 

Related:

28 March 2014. CCARDESA and the International Centre for development oriented Research in Agriculture (ICRA) met to discuss possible areas of cooperation. Discussions covered possible areas of collaboration on conducting relevant studies related to AR4D and on initiating change of mind set through employment of the AR4D approaches.

Focus was on leveraging on on-going CCARDESA led sub regional activities. ICRA is a non profit organisation founded by European members of the Consultative Group on International Research (CGIAR). It aims to stimulate rural innovation in the South by strengthening the abilities of people and organisations in research, education and development to collaborate and learn from each other.

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Deadline 30 April 2014

The Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) would like to develop a database of experts in the region to serve internal and external purposes of the organisation.

• Internally, CCARDESA will soon start to operate a competitive research grant system for awarding research funds to different organisations in the region. For this purpose CCARDESA will establish a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) whose duty will be to review proposals submitted and advise CARDESA on the technical quality of these proposals. The composition of the TAC will change depending on the nature of proposals being reviewed. Thus technical composition of the TAC will be determined by the skills mix required at a particular time. 
• Secondly, CCARDESA wishes to use the database of experts as a pool from which different consultants could be sourced and contacted directly for consultancy assignments.

From time to time, CCARDESA receives requests from regional and global organisations, asking for advice and recommendations for various regional experts to provide a range of services. CCARDESA therefore intends to use the database for purposes of marketing the regional experts and connecting them to organisations that maybe interested in engaging them for various tasks.

In order to serve the internal and external needs of CCARDESA as briefly outlined above, the CCARDESA Secretariat is requesting for submission of CVs from the regional experts, using a format provided below. Please strictly adhere to the following specifications:

Interested individuals are requested to submit their CVs electronically to dzengenene@ccardesa.org with a copy to registry@ccardesa.org by 30 April 2014.
Download the CV format:

Related:
Deadline 25 April 2014
Call for Research project proposals: Reference: CCARD-CFP-CN-14-01

Technical Areas of the Call
CCARDESA is seeking expression of interest from public and private research organizations to carry out research/development work on a topic of relevance to the SADC region under the following Technical Areas:

1. Technical Area 1: Up-scaling and out-scaling of proven agricultural technologies to users.
2. Technical Area 2: Technology generation for improving productivity of agricultural systems.
3. Technical Area 3: Improving the nutritional quality of agricultural products
4. Technical Area 4 Value addition to primary agricultural products and promoting the economic participation of women and youths in agriculture

These research and development grants shall be for a variable period of between one (1) and three (3) years, depending on the nature of the work proposed. The value of each grant shall be not more than USD60,000 per year. Thus, each project will have a budget ceiling of USD180,000 for the duration of the project. The deadline was 25th April 2014.